The Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) Awards and Hall of Fame gala isn’t until May 24 at Chelsea Piers in New York, but this year’s competition has already made history with just two of its recently announced 33 nominations (see story, p. 1).
The pair of nominations went to Panic & Bob Editing, Toronto–one for editor Matthew Kett, the other for cutter Brian Williams. Kett was nominated in the music/sound category for Country Music Television’s “Dueling Sitars” directed by Michael Downing of Radke Films, Toronto, via agency Zig, Toronto. (Downing directs in the U.S. via harvest, Santa Monica.) Williams’ nomination came in the local spot category for Elections Ontario’s “Office” directed by Tim Godsall of Untitled for DDB Canada. (Godsall’s stateside home is Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.)
These are the first two AICE Award nominations in the history of the competition to be bestowed upon editors from a house outside the U.S. As in years past, only editors from AICE member shops are considered for awards recognition. However, with the AICE’s formation of a Toronto chapter (SHOOT, 10/22/04, p. 1)–the organization’s first chapter not in the U.S.–this means that entries from Canadian shops became eligible for the AICE Awards.
As earlier reported (SHOOT, 11/5/04, p. 1), the AICE is also exploring the possibility of expansion overseas. This means that the geographic scope of future AICE Award competitions could continue to grow. But for now, the competition extending its reach to Canada is a significant stride unto itself.
Finalists are selected by editors from AICE member houses in the U.S. and Canada. This makes the nominations particularly special in that they represent recognition from one’s peers. And for Panic & Bob, there’s the added bonus of being the first shop in Canada to have editors included in the field of nominees.
Editor Williams’ support team on the nominated :30 titled “Office” for Elections Ontario included assistant editor Naveen Srivastava and Panic & Bob executive producer Sam McLaren. The DDB creative ensemble consisted of creative director Neil McOstrich, art director Marketa Krivy, copywriter Ben Weinberg, and producers Andrew Schulze, Shenny Jaffer and Tom Evelyn.
McLaren was also the exec producer on “Dueling Sitars,” a Country Music Television :30 cut by Kett. The creative coterie at Zig included creative directors Elspeth Lynn and Lorraine Tao, art director Stephen Leps, copywriter Aaron Starkman and producer Amanda Loughran.
This is the fourth AICE Show–the inaugural event was in New York in ’01 and then shifted to Los Angeles in ’02. Those first two shows took place during the last quarter of the year, a schedule which meant that the awards honored editing on spots that debuted during a July through June eligibility period. Rather than hold a November ’03 awards ceremony, AICE officials opted to push back the event some six months so that the competition could be positioned from ’05 on to recognize the best-edited work of the previous calendar year. The ’04 Show covered an 18-month eligibility period (July 1,’02-Dec. 31, ’03) to account for the event’s altered schedule.
A blue-ribbon panel of judges will review the ’05 AICE Awards’ finalist spots and select the winner in each category. The blue-ribbon body consists of judges from the editorial, directorial and ad agency communities. The competition’s 11editing categories are: Comedy, Dialogue, Graphics, Local Spot, Montage, Music/Sound, PSA, Storytelling, Spec Spot, Visual Effects, and National Campaign.